Muslims in Europe have “challenged the homogeneous understanding of the nation” and are “shaking the relationship between state and religion,” Riva Kastoryano, a research director at the prominent Center of International Studies and Research in Paris, told the Hürriyet Daily News in a recent interview in Istanbul, where she comes every summer to visit her family.

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Q: But aren’t Europeans resentful of the Muslims’ integration problems?

A: Actually, the existing problems are there because they are more integrated. The immigrants have become citizens and they are asking for minority rights. But states are not ready to grant those rights. Anti-immigration trends started in the 1980s. But the issue then was not Islam. Muslims became an issue in the late 1980s as they started to become citizens.

Q: You emphasize Muslims, but not all the immigrants in Europe are Muslim.

A: Multiculturalism is oriented toward the Muslims, because multiculturalism is about recognizing the political rights of minorities. Muslims are [demanding] to have some rights. These rights are not claimed by the Portuguese, the Polish, new immigrants from Russia or the Roma. It is the Muslims who are concerned with equality and citizenship issues.